Surprising Bay Area spot contains some of the world's best Victorian art

An oval portrait of an unknown woman in fur at the Italian Cemetery in Colma, Calif. This photo and others are featured in Bob Giles' latest book on the art of the American cemetery.

An oval portrait of an unknown woman in fur at the Italian Cemetery in Colma, Calif. This photo and others are featured in Bob Giles' latest book on the art of the American cemetery.

Photo: Bob Giles

Photo: Bob Giles

Image
1of/28

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 28

An oval portrait of an unknown woman in fur at the Italian Cemetery in Colma, Calif. This photo and others are featured in Bob Giles' latest book on the art of the American cemetery.

An oval portrait of an unknown woman in fur at the Italian Cemetery in Colma, Calif. This photo and others are featured in Bob Giles' latest book on the art of the American cemetery.

Photo: Bob Giles

Surprising Bay Area spot contains some of the world's best Victorian art

1 / 28

Back to Gallery

Most of the attraction in Colma, a quiet necropolis just north of Millbrae, has to do with what's buried underground. Its 17 cemeteries comprise almost ¾ of the the city's land area and are the eternal homes to notable Bay Area residents, from Levi Strauss to Joe DiMaggio.

Hidden among the cemeteries is separate attraction that's relatively unknown. According to photographer Bob Giles, one of the most exceptional examples of the short-lived Victorian garden cemetery, a style known for its subtle handiwork and ornate architecture, is Cypress Lawn Memorial Park.

Giles first stumbled upon Cypress Lawn in his 20s, on an accidental motorcycle detour. He was captivated by it. It was like an outdoor museum, with grandiose mausoleums, stunning Greek temples and recreated Roman angels— only completely deserted. A few decades later, he returned and started photographing its every inch. He highlights the cemetery, along with several other Bay Area cemeteries, in his recent book, "The Art of the American Cemetery."

"Cemeteries just have this power, this built-in pathos," Giles said. "Photographers often look for themes. Ansel Adams had Yosemite, and I've got the cemeteries."

Victorian garden cemeteries, sometimes referred to as rural garden cemeteries, briefly emerged in the 19th century as part of the movement to beautify death and move away from urban cemeteries, or churchyards, which had wreaked havoc on local communities due to their dangerous design flaws.

The American population was rapidly expanding, and started to outgrow the confined churchyard cemetery spaces. People tried to consolidate area by reusing coffins or stacking them — some as many as five or six — on top of each other. But sometimes, when it flooded, the walls would break down and coffins would crack open. In floods, dead bodies would tumble out into the streets. In those times, cemeteries were ripe for the spread of diseases like cholera and yellow fever.

The panic of that time led to the development of garden cemeteries, which ultimately rebranded what a cemetery could be. Unlike their predecessors, and usually just outside of city limits, they were spacious and meticulously landscaped. They became a venue for people to picnic, listen to live music, and enjoy the aesthetics of the funerary sculpture. The dead and the living were brought back together.

There were a few factors that led to the end of the Victorian cemetery, much having to do with how expensive they were to maintain. Soon, the Victorian style was buried, and replaced with the more-efficient lawn cemetery style.

The number of Victorian cemeteries that remain around the U.S. is dwindling. Most of them are also deteriorating in real-time. That's part of where Giles' book, which took him 25 years to write, comes in. Giles said that on a recent trip to Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, one of his favorite Victorian cemeteries in the Bay Area, he walked up to one of his favorite headstones only to find its hands, the most evocative part of the sculpture, had been vandalized.

The two hands were sculpted to look like they were saying goodbye — a common motif in Victorian cemetery art, Giles said.

"The left hand is subtly different," he said. "It's supposed to be the one of the person whose passed away. You can tell it doesn't have any life in it anymore. It's always fascinated me, how someone will subtly delineate which hand is the one whose departed. You might miss it."

Now Playing:

You may be thinking of leaving the Bay Area in search of a more affordable place to live... but think of all the things you'll miss!

Media: San Francisco Chronicle

Related Stories

You might also miss the risque male angels, or the outstanding relief carvings of Victorian cuffs — that is, if you're not looking. Giles said he finds himself stumbling upon inimitable artistic surprises on every one of his many visits to the Bay Area's cemeteries.

Along with Mountain View and Cypress Lawn, Giles' book includes photographs and the art histories of eight other cemeteries in Colma, and Saint Mary's Cemetery in Oakland. He also spotlights particularly striking cemeteries in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia, Illinois, Los Angeles, Paris, and Italy.

"I've been to many cemeteries where I'm the only person there, for hours," he said.

Walking through all of it — past the adornments of lost centuries and the haunting oval portraits of Victorian children who died too soon — feels to Giles like passing through a time-capsule.

The Victorians, who rejoiced in cemeteries, treated death as a moral lesson — something that happens to all of us. The same can't be said for modern American culture, which designed to both distract us and distance us from the experience of aging, and of death.

Giles has more of a Victorian attitude to it all.

"It puts your life into perspective, being there." he said "[All the people buried there] are gone. They have no chance to do anything. But you have your life, your freedom. No matter who you are — famous, rich, whatever, you're going to end up where all these other people are. It's a nice reminder to be happy, and not to worry about the small stuff."